Toyota’s technical problems: exaggerated for the sake of Japan bashing?
A FTV report about the American media’s sensational coverage of safety problems with Toyota vehicles:
The report focuses on the very questionable claims made by a man who called 9-11 screaming about how his Prius was out of control. [See these two articles for details.]
It goes on to tear into Southern Illinois University engineering professor David Gilbert, who rewired and reengineered the electronics inside a Toyota until he could “replicate” a runaway acceleration situation. Toyota engineers have proven that the same alterations would produce similar effects in several vehicles made by rival automakers. In reporting about Dr. Gilbert, ABC News apparently used some previously-filmed footage of a parked car’s surging tachometer to add some scary drama to the story.
One of the news anchors thinks that the media coverage is just plain Japan bashing. The other anchor, Taro Kimura, sees some parallel between this and something GM/Chevy did in the 1960′s [Could a reader with greater knowledge of the automotive industry fill me in on what he's talking about?].
Also worth considering: A disproportionate number of reports about “sudden acceleration” by Toyota vehicles seem to to have come from elderly drivers:
In the 24 cases where driver age was reported or readily inferred, the drivers included those of the ages 60, 61, 63, 66, 68, 71, 72, 72, 77, 79, 83, 85, 89–and I’m leaving out the son whose age wasn’t identified, but whose 94-year-old father died as a passenger.
[...]
These “electronic defects” apparently discriminate against the elderly, just as the sudden acceleration of Audis and GM autos did before them.
Megan McArdle, business and economics editor for The Atlantic, has also mentioned some other strange statistics about the victims.
[hat tip to Shisaku]
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